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Monday, September 04, 2006

Houston dominance underscores critical series

This afternoon’s marquee matchup between rookie Cole Hamels
and future Hall of Famer Roger Clemens may carry the headline, but the subplot
finds an Astros team that has broken the Phillies hearts for two seasons.

There’s an excellent piece by Don Bostrom of the Morning Call previewing this series with the Astros. It's not online, otherwise I’d link to it. In it, Bostrom summarizes the last two years of this series. The
Phillies have not defeated the Astros since May 18, 2003, and many of the losses have been backbreakers, particularly last season. He
also talks about Pat Burrell, who has yet to get a hit off the Astros since Citizens Bank Park opened in 2004,
and was 1-for-18 against them in 2005. Ironically, as part of the club's 2004 Winter Tour promotion before the park opened, a promotional rendering of the new scoreboard had the Phillies beating the Astros on a walk-off Burrell home run.

It's not going to get any easier for Burrell today. Roger Clemens (6-4, 2.29 ERA), maybe the best pitcher in the National League, last faced the Phillies July
27 of 05, and dominated them in a 3-2 win.

That was hardly the worst of it. The Phillies were Wild Card leaders when the Astros entered Philadelphia
last Labor Day. Here’s what happened, as summarized by Bostrom:

Sept. 5: Astros 4, Phillies 3: Houston scores four runs off
Brett Myers in the first and holds on for the win, putting them in the WC lead

Sept 6: Astros 2, Phillies 1: Wagner gives up a run in the
ninth to take the loss in his first career outing against his former team.

Sept 7: Astros 8, Phillies 6: Bobby Abreu’s two-run homer
caps a rally that gives Philadelphia a 6-5 lead entering in the ninth. Wagner’s
career-best streak of 26 saves comes to an end when a two-out error by David
Bell leads to a game-winning, three-run home run by Craig Biggio.

The previous post referenced expectations, psycology and
pressure. Luckily, Cole Hamels (7-7, 4.50 ERA) wasn’t around for all that. Hamels
allowed just one run in eight innings of Wednesday's 5-1 win at Washington. He
has never faced Houston.

At 67-70, Houston is still in the Wild Card hunt, and playing well. They’ve won seven
of their last 10. Meanwhile, the Phillies are coming off a disappointing split
in a winnable series with Atlanta. They dropped 1 ½ games back of the
front-running Padres.

153 Comments

It's been almost three years, and Burrell hasn't hit a walk-off homer at CBP yet. Promotional jinx.

The big mystery in regards to the Astros is, who designed that orange star with two sides missing, and why? If the bottom two sides were instead removed, the star would also look like an A for Astros, it'd make more sense.

Also, game 3 against the Astros is a perfect example of why its ridiculous to blame a player like Abreu for a teams struggles.

Raise your hand if you remembered Abreu hitting a crucial two-run homer in the most important game of the season. I'm one of his biggest fans and I only barely remember it because of this post.

Wagner and Bell lost that game, and possibly the season...better performances from other players and Abreu is remembered last year as a clutch player leading the team to the WC. Bell makes an error and Abreu's effort is forgotten.

I actually remember that homer, and that game, very well. At the time, it seemed to me like Abreu was stepping up, he looked like more of a go-to guy, seemed somewhat more intense. He then went on to have an injury-plagued and unproductive September...and then came the walk parade and umpire-snitching of 2006. Anyway, the point being that of course he had his share of big moments for the Phillies. Even days before he was traded, there was that 2-run double in the ninth off Trevor Hoffman. I won't remember him as a poor clutch hitter. My issue with him is purely that his approach to the game was not team-oriented in general, and in my estimation it did not have a good effect on the players around him, particularly as his tenure with the Phils grew longer and with greater stature.

So the inside of the star is Texas. I guess that's it...pretty abstract though. Lame logo.

nice start by hamels. Ye guys probably a)take this for granted and b) get bored of me saying how rare it is for me to enjoy a game like this, but having the mlb tv going in the background whilst I cook dinner is a joy. Harry, LA and my tomato sauce. pretty damn fine.

They really have to hold on and win this game. I'm tired of teams pulling off dramatic late-inning wins in the Phillies' yard, they have to start winning these close games at home. Plus, it'll get the Astros' win streak against them off their backs.

I'm pissed about that homerun. a poor hitting club, a ump with a generous strike zone, a day game where the shadows are interfering - hamels will be waiting a while before it all comes together like that. Suppose next time he'll know better.

Ummm...while I like the idea of turning Berkman around, why waste a guy like Madson for two batters? Manuel obviously knows more than we do about who is tired, available, etc., but this is a VERY curious move.

I just don't think this team is good enough to be able to afford to have Charlie Manuel as its manager. When all is said and done, he probably loses us 2-3 games a season. Good guy and I'm sure he's great for "cohesion" and "chemistry" and all that intangible nonsense, but he makes bad decisions.

What an inning. Bonehead move by Garner to walk Howard, but Manuel decides to make up for it by taking out a guy with a .900 OPS so he can bunt, all while leaving Howard on the bases and not pinch running.

The bunt play is so complete Manuel, never going for the kill, always with the conservative play...he just doesn't get it.

Sure glad we had Dellucci & Hernandez up there with the bases loaded instead of that bum Abreu. He would've just stood there and walked. RSB is right, what a bum. This team is way better without him. And hitting Thurston for Burrell? Charlie is a genius, right?

I don't know how you can say that Burrell wouldn't get a hit of Qualls, RSB, especially considering Conine ripped a double...do you really think Conine is a better hitter than Burrell? If we are talking Lidge or Clemens, I agree that a bunt might be called for, but Qualls is nothing. Burrell is a mistake hitter and Qualls makes mistakes.

kdon, check out Burrell's bat speed the past several games. It's nonexistent. Qualls is throwing mid-90s. Normally, I wouldn't advocate removing a guy with extra-base power, but I haven't seen extra-base power from Burrell in a long time. I think they wanted to go with a bunt there, and it's not a bad idea.

Also, you can of course fault Thurston for failing to get the bunt down, but this is a perfect example of how Manuel puts players in positions to fail. He basically tells the entire world he is going to bunt, so Ensberg is about two feet away and the 1B is charging. In addition, there is a very slow runner on first, so Thurston knows he has to be absolutely perfect to adavance the runner. Manuel put him in a position where failure was likely.

Burrell should have been given the chance. Imagine his confidence boost if he did do it. If he does'nt nothing changes. He's an everyday player who could do with a boost. Just by taking him out his confidence plummets. Charlie is thick.

I agree with BloosStripes. If Burrell is so bad that he can't take swings against a mid-inning reliever, he shouldn't be in the game to start with. I'll trust your scouting report RSB, but Burrell has gone the opposite way a lot recently and he draws a lot of walks, either way it puts pressure on the Astros

I'm not talking about that particular at-bat, obviously. Odds are Abreu would have made an out as well. But over time, having Delucci in there instead of Abreu is going to hurt your offense. He's been playing over his head all year and he's going to revert to his averages. Did you really think he was going to hit over .300 all year?

kdon, bloodstripes: I'm with you. Burrell could've done way more things to advance the runner, walk, hit, grounder, than Thurston, who's basically a Triple A player. i mean if it's the bottom of the order, maybe, but batting Joe Freaking Thurston for the guy who bats 5th in your lineup? Again RSB now feels obligated to support every move Charlie makes. In for a dime, in for a dollar.

kdon, right on, Utley got that pitch because Howard was on deck. Amazing how he affects the game even when he's not even the batter. But how about Utley coming through? It's awesome to see him come around and get such a big hit, and for the Phils to win another game they looked like they were going to squander.